The Bride (The Bride #1)(11)

Instinctively, I put my arms around his neck and buried my face against his suit. I thought about Janet and her running nose in his shirt and realized Jake was going to have to get this suit dry cleaned again.

I cried the whole way out of the courtroom with everyone watching me, but there was nothing I could do to stop it.

My dad was dead. Forever.



*

Jake



It was almost surreal watching it happen. I heard Judge Michaels say kiss the bride and I winced because the thought of actually kissing Ellie was bizarre to me. But then I realized what I had told her was true. She was now my family. In every sense of the word. It was some odd instinct that made me kiss her gently on the forehead.

Like a reverse fairytale, instead of the handsome prince waking up the princess it was like I broke through and destroyed all her defenses. Taking her down to her knees, because I knew that’s exactly where she was going before I lifted her up into my arms.

Howard gave me a worried look but I shook my head.

I knew what this was. The shock of Sam’s death and all that it meant had finally worn off. Ellie had come to grips with the reality that her dad was gone forever.

I knew what this was, because I had felt this kind of pain. I hadn’t sobbed out loud. I hadn’t let big wet tears stream down my face. No, I was too tough for that. But looking at Ellie, that was exactly what I had felt inside.

In a strange way, I liked holding her through this. I liked being able to show in my arms what my own internal pain had looked like. See everyone, this is what grief is.

This is what it means to lose the most important thing in your life.

I lifted her higher in my arms, and it didn’t matter that everyone in the courthouse was staring at us. I held my head high and walked my sobbing teen bride out of the room, down the hall and out onto the street where my truck was waiting to take us back to the ranch.

Where we would live our lives together for the next sixteen months.

It was strange. To me this day had been all about getting a chore taken care of. A bit of legal work that needed to be signed and done. I wouldn’t have thought in any way that my feelings would change.

Ellie was Ellie. The girl I knew since she’d been born.

Except when I looked down at her, I realized I did feel different. More connected to her. More bonded to her than ever before. She was officially my responsibility.

Our marriage would only ever be a piece of paper.

But the immediate future was about us being a team. Me helping her through her grief. Getting her up to speed on what it meant to run a ranch. Her helping me figure out all the things Sam did that I probably didn’t know.

Team JakeandEllie.

It was crazy, but I really liked the sound of that.

“I got snot all over your suit,” she said when I got to the truck.

“If I put you down to open the door, are you going to be able to stand?” I could feel her nod against my neck.

I set her down and had her lean against the truck. I opened the passenger side door and then lifted her in. She felt like a limp doll.

I rounded the truck and got behind the wheel. She’d managed to get her seat belt on.

I took a deep breath. “I know this sucks to hear right now, but I swear you will get through this.”

She didn’t say anything. Just leaned her head back against the seat.

We had planned to have dinner in town. With Howard, as a thank you for arranging everything, rather than any kind of celebration. I was pretty sure he would understand if that didn’t happen.

“Can we go home?” she asked.

Home. To our bizarre new world.

“Yep. Let’s go home.”





Five





Ellie





“I can’t believe you’re married to Jake Talley,” my friend Chrissy said.

It was Saturday and she’d come over to the house to work on a science project together. We were supposed to be creating water or something from ingredients, but I was pretty sure we were going to blow something up.

Science was not my strongest subject. Right behind math. I kept my average up with English, History and Spanish. Spanish I rocked because Javier and Gomez, who came to work during calving and sell-off season, helped me to be almost fluent.

“Get over it,” I said back.

I pretty much had. It had been a week since the wedding. I was back in school. Jake was living in my dad’s room. For the most part, things were settling back into normal. Weird normal, sad normal, but normal.

I was still crying myself to sleep every night, but I did it into a pillow so Jake wouldn’t have to hear.

“Are you, like, allowed to drink now?”

Not according to Jake. Which I thought was lame.

“Uh, no. I’m married, I didn’t suddenly turn twenty-one.”

“Oh. Are you going to have to take him to the prom?”

I looked up at her. “Are you for real?”

“No, I mean seriously. He’s your husband. And he’s like super hot. You should totally take him to the prom.”

“I’m not taking Jake to my prom.”

Chrissy seemed to mull that over. “Do you think Riley will still ask you now that you’re married?”

Ugh. That word. I was officially putting married in the same category as orphan.